[author: Jane Anderson]
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The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) settled its 13th enforcement action in its Right of Access Initiative, first announced in 2019 to support individuals’ rights to timely access their health records at a reasonable cost under the privacy rule.
[1] As part of the settlement, announced Dec. 22, Peter Wrobel, doing business as Georgia-based Elite Primary Care, agreed to take corrective actions and pay $36,000 to settle a potential violation of the right of access standard. In April 2019, OCR received a complaint alleging that Elite failed to respond to a patient’s request for access to his medical records, and OCR provided technical assistance in May 2019. However, OCR received a second complaint in October 2019 alleging that Elite still had not provided the patient with access to his medical records and initiated an investigation. In addition to the monetary settlement, Elite is required to follow a corrective action plan (CAP) for two years. The
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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ Cedar Springs Hospital is providing notice of an incident that may affect the security of information relating to certain Cedar Springs Hospital patients.
Cedar Springs Hospital recently received a request from its licensing agency, the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment ( CDPHE ), for certain hospital records. As a licensed healthcare provider, Cedar Springs Hospital is subject to periodic surveys by CDPHE and in connection with those surveys, the CDPHE is entitled to various hospital records, including, but not limited to, those containing patient health information. In late October, in connection with a survey, the CDPHE requested Cedar Springs Hospital copy a number of records onto an external drive that CDPHE provided to the facility. Cedar Springs Hospital complied with the request. On October 28, 2020, CDPHE notified Cedar Springs Hospital that the surveyor misplaced the external device